Measurement of soil-gas radon in some areas of northern Rajasthan, India

The health hazards of the radioactive gas radon on general public are well known. In order to understand the level and distribution of Rn-222 concentrations in soil-gas in Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan, a Rn-222 survey was carried out for the first time using RAD7, an electronic radon detector manufactured by Durridge Company (USA), at different locations covering a total area of 10,978 km(2), having a population of approximately 20 lakh. The measurement of Rn-222 concentration in soil-gas was carried out at four different depths (10, 40, 70, and 100 cm). The radon concentration in soil-gas for 10, 40, 70, and 100 cm depths ranged from 0.09-4.25, 0.15-6.30, 0.50-9.18, and 0.72-10.40 kBq m(-3), respectively. The minimum value of radon concentration is observed in 33 GB village at 10 cm depth and maximum for Mohanpura village at 100 cm depth. As expected, our data show an increase of soil-gas radon concentration levels with depth. The present results are compared with the available radon data from other studies.